Madring design savaged after Spanish GP debut as VSC timing costs Norris the win

Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli stretched his lead in the drivers' standings with victory at the first Spanish Grand Prix held at the new Madring circuit near Madrid. Max Verstappen finished second in the Red Bull, with McLaren's Lando Norris completing the top three — but only after losing a race he had been leading in deeply controversial circumstances.

'How did they get it so wrong?'

The debut of the Madring — built partly from scratch and partly on existing roads around the Ifema exhibition centre near Madrid's Barajas international airport — drew withering criticism from drivers, who had predicted even before the weekend that overtaking would be next to impossible. They were proved right.

As Norris put it witheringly after the race: "I don't know how someone looks at this design and goes: 'Mint.'"

BBC F1 correspondent Andrew Benson identifies several key flaws. Chief among them is the lack of a long straight leading into a big braking zone. A number of corners also force drivers to combine braking and turning, which makes overtaking extremely difficult, while walls come back towards the track on corner exit. Add to that the ultra-long pit lane — the longest on the calendar — and the incentives for a multi-stop race, safety cars and accidents all diminish, increasing tyre management instead.

Norris, however, believes the circuit can be fixed. "There's a lot of opportunity," he said. "They can make it into a track that's good for racing, and I'm excited to come back here next year if they can make these changes because I think it's a track that is good fun to drive and it can be a great race track. To me, it's not a great race track. It's great in qualifying."

The McLaren driver suggested removing turns 18 and 19 and "making a straight line from 17 to 20, have a much wider entry like Austin Turn One or Turn 10 in Austin... big hairpin", a change he said would "create much better opportunities for everyone and you'll be able to enjoy the race". He also advocated what he called "some trickier changes", including reworking the unpopular, clumsy chicane at Turn Five and the section from there to Turn Seven.

Benson adds that the location and layout of the pits and paddock also need attention: the facility was more fractured and spread over a much larger area than at any other track, with the pit lane split in half by a building — an arrangement he likens to holding a grand prix at the NEC in Birmingham. Reports now indicate the Madrid circuit is set for changes after the criticism.

Norris loses out under the virtual safety car

Norris, who was leading the race, lost out having passed the pit entry immediately before the virtual safety car was called, meaning he alone was unable to pit under it. The incident focused fresh attention on how the VSC can disrupt races, with the situation — a driver losing a win purely because of track positioning when a VSC is deployed — believed to be unique in living memory.

The VSC has long been a potential source of advantage because a pit stop taken under it takes significantly less time than under racing conditions. Usually, however, it is a team that has deliberately saved its strategy for a safety car window — as Norris himself did in his maiden victory in Miami in 2024. What happened in Spain was different: nothing more than a stroke of fate.

The issue, Norris said, "has been spoken about many, many times", and McLaren's team principal Andrea Stella admitted there is no obvious answer. "Offering a personal opinion, I'm puzzled myself as to what's right," Stella said. "Is it correct to give enough duration such that everyone will have been subject to the same track conditions? So, for instance, the virtual safety car lasts at least one full lap. Or you just keep it in the hands of the Gods, and sometimes you are lucky, sometimes you are not. I'm not sure."

Any rule change would go through the sporting advisory committee and then be reviewed by the F1 Commission of teams, commercial rights holder Formula 1 and governing body the FIA. That process will not happen quickly, and right now the momentum for change does not appear to be there.